Reviews

By the Dark o' the Moon

The Ghost Trap

Move over, mermaid fans! Make room for Selkie fiction.

Good lord, does K. Stephens know water! By the Dark O’ the Moon is a haunting tale of possession, patience, and the briny depths one will brave for love... of a child, of a family, of something ancient and wild. Prosy and lyrical, the novel expertly balances the mystery of Irish folklore against the backdrop of 1920s Prohibition and Maine’s struggling island lobstermen.

When a boat crashes on the rocks, Elray, a man forced into rumrunning to make ends meet, steals a selkie baby who’s washed ashore—her seal skin lying nearby. Aaelene rises from the sea in search of her bairn and is forced to live with Elray, posing as his wife, until she can reclaim her daughter’s skin and return to the water for good.

A deliciously slow-burning tale of maternal fury, folklore, and the saltwater price of stolen things. This isn’t a love story. It’s a reckoning.
—Lori Hettler, owner, The Next Best Book Blog
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By the Dark o’ the Moon is an absolute gem of historical fantasy. K. Stephens brilliantly blends the gritty backdrop of Prohibition-era Maine with the haunting beauty of selkie folklore. The story feels both mythic and grounded in reality, full of danger, atmosphere, and heart.

Aaelene’s desperate quest to reclaim her child’s sealskin gripped me from the first page, and I loved how the unlikely alliance with the rumrunner’s apprentice added layers of tension and moral conflict. The setting is vivid you can almost taste the salt air and feel the pull of the moonlit tides.

This book is equal parts suspenseful, magical, and deeply emotional. If you love folklore woven into historical settings, you’ll be swept away. I couldn’t put it down
--Terry Worrell, Goodreads
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K. Stephens has a strong writing style and this worked as a grounded fantasy element, I enjoyed this as a Selkie novel and that it was a great overall package. I was invested in what was going on in this concept and thought this worked well as a character development. The characters were everything that I was wanting and enjoyed in the Maine setting, I enjoyed this overall and was glad I got to read this. I was engaged from the first page and glad K. Stephens wrote this so well.
-Kathryn McAleer, book reviewer
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First, a big thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of K. Stephens’ novel “By the Dark o' the Moon"

Selkies are finally having a moment. K. Stephens knits together 1920s New England, Prohibition, and the mythological selkie from Celtic folklore seamlessly. You can tell that this story was well researched, I felt like I was reading a novel written 100 years ago in the best way. The characters were well developed and with each having their own distinct personalities, brought depth to the plot and believability to the conflicts.

The prose in this book is absolutely stunning—full of vivid, sensory-rich descriptions that make you feel like you’re standing right there in the cold setting. Every scene is dripping with atmosphere, and the writing pulls you deep into the world. The tone is unapologetic, every character stands out, and the settings are steeped in the historical conditions. This constant bleakness adds a raw tension that makes the story compelling.

The biggest issue for me was pacing, for the first two-thirds, the core conflict seemed to fade into the background, and the plot lost its direction. Despite those flaws, I enjoyed this story.

I received an ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
-Emily Bonin
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What an enchanting and atmospheric read! By the Dark o’ the Moon takes readers to 1920s Maine, where the dangers of rumrunning collide with the timeless magic of selkie lore. The contrast between harsh coastal life and the lyrical, otherworldly elements is beautifully done.

Aaelene’s determination to reclaim her child is powerful and heartbreaking, and the rumrunner’s apprentice adds such a compelling human struggle torn between right and wrong, loyalty and compassion. The tension kept me turning the pages, and the blend of myth and history felt seamless.

K. Stephens delivers a tale that is both haunting and hopeful. I finished it feeling like I’d stepped out of another world. Highly recommend for fans of historical fiction with a touch of folklore magic!
-Mary Gilchrist, Goodreads

A salty, tangy read."
--Richard Grant, author of Another Green World
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“Stephens has a wonderful clear eye for people, especially Maine people, and The Ghost Trap is populated with dozens from all walks of Maine life.”
—Bill Roorbach, author of NYT best seller, Lucky Turtle
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“Stephens gives the reader an unvarnished view of the subculture of lobster fishermen in small-town coastal Maine.”
—James Acheson, author of The Lobster Gangs of Maine
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"The Ghost Trap is the first book that has ever made me tear up—not because of it being sappy but its closeness to reality. Stephens writes fiction that goes beyond the pages and ventures into exploring life’s ailments with both passion and reality. "
—Booked in Chico national book club
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The Ghost Trap is a compelling novel, propelling you along through the deep water, on board Jamie Eugley’s lobster boat of a life, anchored to a brain-damaged girlfriend who nearly died after being swept off the boat and ever-after becomes his burden, with a lobstering father who hates him, a daily life full of beer, boasts, bragging and battles, and friends who seem – well, not so friendly. From trap wars to human tragedies, this is life at it’s grittiest – or it’s best, depending on whether you think lobstering is the best or worst of all possible jobs and life in a small coastal fishing village is paradise or hell on earth. Truthfully, it’s a bit of both.
—George Smith, Bangor Daily News
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Publishers Weekly
In her impressive debut novel, Stephens offers a rugged and tender tale. Jamie Eugley, a ninth-generation lobsterman in the port village of Owls Head has cared for his brain-injured girlfriend, Anja, for three long years. Jamie suffers deep guilt over her near drowning accident while aboard his lobster boat and her subsequent debilitating coma. Anja's medical improvement has been frustratingly slow, but Jamie continues to nurse his naïve, stubborn fantasy of marrying the recovered Anja. Meanwhile, he deals with a dangerous and violent trap war among the lobstermen and a romance with Happy Klein, a first mate on a tourist schooner up for the summer season who wants Jamie to come back with her to Key West. The bawdy humor, snappy dialogue, colorful local sea myths and rich lobstering details add to the immense appeal of this textured narrative about a superstitious but independent lobsterman's inward and outward struggles. (September, 2009)